In motor vehicle body construction known handling systems (DE 202 19 713 U1) are used, wherein the component to be handled, for example a motor vehicle door, is gripped by means of a gripper on the arm of a robot and brought exactly to the place of the body structure, where it is to be assembled. So that the component is picked up securely and precisely, the gripper is equipped with several clamp devices, on their part each comprising a gripper chuck, which grip the component in several spatially staggered places with the contour pieces adapted to the component. A pre-condition for precise-position gripping requires that for each type of component the clamp devices on the gripper are positioned accordingly and equipped with suitable contour pieces. Such a device and change-over of the grippers are necessary even if components having a similar shape are to be handled. “Components having a similar shape” are understood to mean those, which although congruent in several places have a different height to each other. Alternatively a further suitably tooled handling system could also be used for another type of component, which however would be associated with a substantial increase in engineering costs.
For opening and closing gripper chucks of handling systems mechanical drives, which have a toothed push bar, are known (U.S. Pat. No. 6,428,071 B2). The driving toothed push bar is formed as part of a hydraulic cylinder piston arrangement and is coupled to the movable gripper jaws of the gripper chuck via a fixed pinion.